Strangers But in Dreams (The Banishers Part 3)
by Tgonthefiery
Summary: After she's shot into a coma, Marilyn Schmidt thinks she's dead. But instead, she discovers she's ended up in a universe made up of nightmares and broken dreams; the Deepscape. However, when she finally wakes up after 10 years, Marilyn realises the Deepscape and all her nightmares have followed her home...including the person who shot her to sleep in the first place.
1. Brighter Memories of a Darker Time

**This story is part of the 'The Banishers' universe, and takes place during the events of Stage 01 and Let Me Breathe.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Five Nights at Freddy's or Five Nights at Candy's. Five Nights at Freddy's belongs to Scott Cawthon, and Five Nights at Candy's to Emil Macko. I do NOT own any of the characters currently featured in this fic (keep in mind that OCs may be introduced later on in the story).**

 **Just to clear up a couple of things:**

 **-No, this isn't a retelling of Five Nights at Candy's; it's part of 'The Banishers', and I intend to link this with the rest of the stories.**

 **-The Rat and Cat Theatre is in Hurricane (which you fans of the FNaF Novels should be familiar with. Also applies to any readers of Stage 01).**

 **-This is probably the most gruesome chapter currently planned. So you sensitive guys, fret not; in fact, it's possible you could skip this chapter.**

 **Please view my profile if you wish for more information on 'The Banishers', or any of my other stories.**

 **This chapter is an introductory chapter, so expect lots of exposition. The actual plot of this story will be starting in the next chapter, so stay tuned.**

 **Enjoy the chapter, and read and review :)**

 **WARNING TO SENSITIVE READERS: Blood, Gore, Alcohol Reference and Trauma.**

 **Chapter 1**

 **Brighter Memories of a Darker Time**

Secrets are always there, everywhere you look. All people have them, some hiding theirs better than others. Some tell, others don't. Some lie, some just hide. But no matter what, a secret can always be found inside the mind.

Marilyn Schmidt had been able to read people's faces from a young age. She could tell what they were thinking, or what they were about to do. You could call it a good thing, or a bad thing. Because the bad things she saw were much worse than the good things. So bad in fact, you could call them… life scarring. Because you could forget the good, but never the bad.

Marilyn groaned, opening her eyes as if she hadn't in years. She stared up at a white ceiling, and frowned in confusion.

 _Where am I?_

She looked to her left, and smiled as she saw a blue origami cat on a table next to her bed.

 _The bed._

She looked at it, panicking as she realised it wasn't her own. There was a vase of flowers on the table next to the origami cat, and an IV drip was plugged into her arm.

"This doesn't make any sense." Marilyn muttered, running her fingers through her long black hair.

"Where… am I?" Suddenly the sound of a door opening was heard, and Marilyn vaguely realised it had been there the whole time. A woman walked in with a clipboard, not noticing her.

"Where am I?" She asked, this time directing the question towards the woman. She looked at Marilyn, apparently startled.

"You're awake." She said after a moment or two, and a fake smile came over her face. Marilyn knew it was fake; the eyes were all you had to pay attention to. "Where am I?" She asked again, this time a bit threateningly. "Please, calm d-"

"WHERE AM I!?" Marilyn yelled, and the woman shrank back a bit.

"Y-You're in t-the hospital-al." She stuttered, and Marilyn frowned. "That… that doesn't make sense! You're lying! You shouldn't even be here! There aren't even any hospitals in the Deep-" Suddenly a realization overtook her, and she looked out the window to see clouds passing by.

"No." She muttered, putting her head in her hands. "This can't be happening."

 _You're not there anymore._

"No way."

 _You're not there anymore._

"No!"

 _You're not there anymore._

"NO!"

 **xXx**

 _Now as she entered the building, she instantly spotted the Rat talking with a large group of children. Among them Marilyn recognised Tracy Horton, a girl she'd met a few days ago._

 _"Oh, hi! Your dress looks almost the same as mine! We should be friends!" That was what Tracy had said, and Marilyn hadn't questioned it. She had no friends but her brother, and he was on camp._

 _All the children were eager to play a game, and it was always the same at the Rat and Cat Theatre: Hide and Seek. You could call it the Rat and Cat's specialty. They were, after all, the main attractions of this place, and seeing them perform always made Marilyn smile._

 _Sure, unlike most of the kids, she knew that they were just men in costumes. She had no clue what they looked like on the inside, but she honestly didn't care. Because after all, it didn't matter if they were ugly and scary looking. They were still nice to her and all the other children._

 _To the right was the puppeteer, his face covered with makeup and his arms extended, holding the cross which controlled his ventriloquist puppet Vinnie. Vinnie had only been introduced a few weeks ago, and Marilyn found his design a tad bit frightening. His bulging eyes didn't seem friendly at all, and sometimes when he seemed to be looking at her, she felt as if she was looking a killer in the eyes._

 _But the other children loved him all the same, and so the creepy puppet with the enormous eyes remained as an attraction of the Theatre._

 _"Hey Hey Hey! CALM DOWN guys!" The Rat exclaimed as the crowd of children continued to jump up and down energetically. "HEY! I have an IDEA! Let's all play HIDE-AND-SEEK TOGETHER!" The cheers from the children became so loud that as Marilyn approached, she had to cover her ears._

 _"I'll stay here and COUNT to 100 while you all HIDE!" He yelled in order to keep over the noise of the children. "READY! SET… and GO!" Instantly the children ran off, and the noise level instantly dropped. Marilyn looked around for a moment, before realising with a jolt that the Rat was counting._

 _"95…94…93…" Panicking, she ran around, but found that all of the hiding spots were taken. Children were crammed under the tables, hidden inside the cupboards. Once she attempted to stoop down under a table, but the child there pushed her out._

 _"Hey! I'm hiding here!" He whispered angrily. "Go find you own hiding spot!" Sighing, Marilyn doubled back on herself, unsure of what to do. But that was when she saw it; the Cat exited the Staff Room, hurrying to get to the stage. But in his rush, he had left the door open. Marilyn looked doubtfully at the door, questioning whether morality or participation was more important._

 _"FOUND YOU!" The Rat exclaimed in the background, followed by countless gasps as groans as he said the words over and over again. "FOUND YOU! FOUND YOU! FOUND YOU, TOO!" Marilyn glanced back nervously one last time, before running into the room and shutting the door behind her._

 _Marilyn looked around the room, for a place to hide. There was a table, on which lay Vinnie the ventriloquist puppet… no, she'd be noticed easily. She looked at a small desk next to the door, with the script laid out on it. She read over it with interest, and eventually found something which stood out more than the rest of the words._

 _"The Cat's name is Candy." She said, and smiled. "I kind of like it…" She looked under the desk, and frowned. It was too open. Suddenly she noticed a small bin on the other side of the door, and stared, perplexed at its contents. There were two drawings, one of the puppeteer and one of the Cat. They were both scrunched into balls, and had been thrown crudely to into the bin. This puzzled her momentarily, but not enough to have her forget why she was in this room._

 _Marilyn turned around and smiled when she saw what might be the only good hiding place in the room. A closet stood opposite her, and it was definitely big enough for her to hide inside. She squinted as she saw something next to the closet; a framed piece of paper, reading DIPLOMA and something about acting. Marilyn shrugged, opening the closet door and entering, before shutting it again._

 _Several moments passed, and it had been so long that she was beginning to think that, for the first time, she had won a game of Hide & Seek against the Rat. Her heartbeat began to slow down, and she smiled as she heard silence. _

_But she celebrated too soon, as just then, the door slammed open. The Rat stepped inside, his permanent grin appearing to stretch._

 _"I saw you walk in here kid!" He said, and Marilyn gulped as he stepped forward. "I'm gonna find ya!" He was dangerously near the closet, and he seemed to be looking directly at it. But before he could get any closer, another man entered the room, this one clad in makeup. Marilyn realised it was the puppeteer, and shrank back a little._

 _"What are you thinking? You can't show up here in that condition!" Now less scared than curious, she leaned forward a bit as the conversation continued to unravel._

 _"Relax man, I only had a few-" The Rat began to protest before he was cut off by the puppeteer._

 _"Do you have any idea what would happen, if any of the parents found out that one of our actors is drunk!?"_

Drunk?

 _Marilyn frowned as she thought of the word. She had asked her father once, unaware that he himself was drunk after a party._

 _"Daddy, how do you tell if someone is drunk?" She had asked, and he pointed towards a few cars ahead of them._

 _"You see those 6 cars, Mary?" He had said. "A drunk person would see 12." Marilyn had stared, long and hard, before finally saying, "But Daddy, there are only 3 cars."_

 _As she thought of the memory Marilyn almost giggled. She clapped her hand over her mouth, and a soft muffled sound escaped her mouth._

That was close.

 _"Think of our careers!" The puppeteer continued to rant. "Think about the children!"_

 _"What ABOUT the children!?" The Rat exclaimed, taking a threatening step forward. "They LOVE ME! I'm the most popular character in this FREAKIN' SHOW! Don't be jealous that I've got talent and YOU DON'T!" Marilyn suddenly realised that her dad was being easy on her when he had explained intoxication. This Rat… this wasn't the one she'd come to know over the last week._

 _"You have no idea what you're talking about." The puppeteer huffed angrily, and took a step forward. "Take off that costume, you're going home." The Rat growled menacingly, also stepping forward to meet the puppeteer's eye._

 _"No, I'm gonna go back out there, and keep this damn show ALIVE." That was enough for the puppeteer. He strode forward, and began to reach for the Rat's head._

 _"NO YOU'RE NOT! TAKE IT OFF, NOW!" He grabbed the head, and began to lift it up with so much force that the Rat began to cry out, a string of curses wafting off his tongue, which Marilyn wouldn't even understand for the next 10 years._

 _"CUT IT OUT!" The Rat shrieked, and grabbed the puppeteer's neck. Marilyn watched fearfully, as his leather-padded fingers tightened around the puppeteer's throat, and he began to make weak choking noises. Step by step, the Rat began to push the puppeteer towards the wall, and Marilyn began to realise that the puppeteer was right._

He really is drunk.

 _The puppeteer began to speak again, growling softly._

 _"Let…me…GO!" He pushed with all his might, sending the Rat flying backwards, arms windmilling in panic. Marilyn gasped as his head smashed against the table holding Vinnie, whose arm fell off the table from the following wobble. The costumed man fell to the floor, no sound coming from his mouth. She watched, terrified as she noticed that where the Rat had hit his head, there was now a red patch of blood._

He's dead.

 _She couldn't comprehend what was happening; she didn't know what to do. She was trapped in a closet with a murderer right outside._

I just saw someone die.

 _She panicked as the puppeteer looked at the costumed body, and his voice became fearful._

 _"Hey…Hey! *****? ***** are you OK?" Marilyn growled as her mind seemed to block out the man's name._

What is happening to me?

 _"Come on man, this isn't funny!" He took a step forward, then shrank back. "…oh no…no no no!"_

 _Suddenly the door was opened again, and the Cat walked in. Marilyn wept silently as she prayed that she'd be able to leave._

 _"What's with all the…" The Cat began to say, but stopped when he saw the body on the floor. A small pool of blood had begun to drip from his head, and was now even wider than the Rat's costumed mask. "What happened!?" He exclaimed, and the puppeteer made a panicked motion._

 _"LOCK THE DOOR!" He said, and the Cat obeyed, quickly turning around the shut the door, twisting the small lock in the door handle. He looked back and walked up to the puppeteer. "I…I didn't mean to, it was an accident, I swear! He just, he…" He started saying. Sweat had begun to form on his face, and now two tear streaks had formed from his eyes, causing his white face paint to drip off._

 _"We have to call an ambulance, and…and the police!" The Cat exclaimed, and the puppeteer's head drooped. "We have to tell them what happened…" A new expression overtook the puppeteer's face, and despite his face paint making it much more difficult, Marilyn could still read him. He was formulating a plan…and it didn't look like it would be a good one._

 _"No wait, ***** was always a bit unstable, he'd been drinking…" Marilyn ignored how her mind blocked out the name, this time more focused on what was happening. The puppeteer; he was planning to cover up this incident._

 _"…we found him like this, yes…that's what we have to tell them, we found him dead in here." Marilyn gulped as the puppeteer's eyes brushed briefly over the closet._

 _"Listen, it was an accident, an honest mistake…" Marilyn listened, still surprised at the goodwill of the Cat. "We have to tell them what really happened!" As he said that and headed over to the telephone, the puppeteer's head hunched, and Marilyn realised she couldn't see his face. She couldn't read him. "B-but, I can't…"_

 _The Cat began to enter the number, and the puppeteer turned. She could only see his face for a moment, but the expression was clear; it was the face of a killer._

 _At that moment, she wanted so badly to jump out of the closet and tell the Cat to turn around. He was a good man, and good men didn't deserve to die. But her mind told her no. And the mind always won._

 _His hands quickly grabbed around the Cat's neck, just as the Rat had done to him. His gloved fingers began to tighten, and the Cat strained against his grip. Marilyn clapped her hands over her mouth, so she wouldn't scream._

 _"…w-what ar…are you…d…doing…?" He croaked out as the puppeteer continued to tighten his grasp. "I…c-can't…b…" As the Cat's body collapsed onto the table, the puppeteer threw him into the wall, his face expressionless._

 _He strode over to the other side of the closet, and as he did so Marilyn held her breath. He looked at the sheet of paper reading DIPLOMA for a moment, before quickly rushing back to finish entering the number into the phone. He picked it up, and waited for a moment._

 _"Hello? Police? You have to hurry over here! My coworkers, they-they're dead, both of them!" Marilyn wept silently to herself, as she prayed that the puppeteer would leave the room. Someone said something on the receiving end, and the puppeteer hesitated for a bit, before speaking again._

 _"I-I just heard something, it sounded like a rustle…I just came in and they were both dead in here."_

 _There was a small sift of anger in his voice, as someone on the other side spoke again._

 _"You don't understand, we run a theatre, the show's beginning and- The Rat and Cat Theatre, you know where it is? Good."_

 _More noise came from the other side, and the puppeteer tensed._

 _"Yes? Yeah? O-Okay, I'll do that. Yes… I'll tell everyone it's cancelled today. No, nobody will come in here. Okay, thank you."_

 _He placed down the receiver, and looked back at the paper._

Please don't open the door.

 _He ignored the closet, and quickly stuffed the paper into one of the boxes in the corner. With that, he turned and ran out, slamming the door shut._

 _After several moments passed, she could hear the puppeteer shouting, and suddenly there was a noise which was clearly the people running out of the building. As soon as the noise had passed, Marilyn opened the closet door. The blood from the Rat's head was still dripping, and the Cat just sat there, his body motionless._

 _On the outside, Marilyn was silent. No sound came out of her mouth. But on the inside…she was screaming. She had just witnessed to men get killed. And the killer himself would probably get off scot free. She sat down on the floor of the closet, and wept as the sound of sirens was heard. Perhaps time would pass. Perhaps she would get over this one day. But nothing could make her forget this._

 _Nothing._


	2. Trees of Dreams In a World Of Nightmares

**This story is part of the 'The Banishers' universe, and takes place during the events of Stage 01 and Let Me Breathe.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Five Nights at Freddy's or Five Nights at Candy's. Five Nights at Freddy's belongs to Scott Cawthon, and Five Nights at Candy's to Emil Macko. I do NOT own any of the characters currently featured in this fic (keep in mind that OCs may be introduced later on in the story).**

 **Please view my profile if you wish for more information on 'The Banishers', or any of my other stories.**

 **Enjoy the chapter, and read and review :)**

 **WARNING TO SENSITIVE READERS: Blood, Gore, and Trauma.**

 **Chapter 2**

 **Trees of Dreams in a World of Nightmares**

 _1 year later, her father had taken her to see a doctor. They had pulled up at the building on a Monday, though Marilyn would have rather stayed at school. But her father had insisted._

 _"The doctor is here to help you." He would say, and every time Marilyn would shake her head. She didn't' want to meet him. "I've met him. He's a very nice man." He continued pressing, and eventually she gave in._

 _It wasn't that she hated all doctors; it was that she'd hated all the previous ones. When she had walked out of the theatre, tears streaming from her eyes and her footprints stained into the ground with blood, the police had realised she must have witnessed the murders. So they questioned her, every day, but something stopped her from remembering what had taken place._

 _Eventually they brought in the doctors; bright, smiling men and women, apparently meant to help her. She could tell they were trying their best to do something, though she couldn't tell what. To help her recover? To help her remember? Both? Who knew? Humans were unpredictable._

 _They called the memory block 'trauma'. It was a new word for Marilyn, and new things intrigued her. They had explained that it was bad; they needed to get rid of it, and they did it by talking. And that was what she didn't like. Since the incident, she had hardly talked. She often gave single worded answers, saying yes, no, or maybe._

 _The doctors, or psychiatrists, always wore smiles, but most of them were fake. The ones who were sincere were usually unintelligent, and so it had started an irritating cycle. New doctor, disagreement, new doctor, disagreement, and so on._

 _So now they walked up the small path, Marilyn clutching her father's hand as they did so. She didn't want him to leave; she had already almost lost her brother the previous year. And to make up for all this terrible pain, her father had showered her with gifts. Heck, he even bought her a phone! A mobile phone, with a camera. Right now it was lying in her pocket, having not been used at all for the past months. Marilyn liked the phone because it was from her father, not because she really used it. She found it quite pointless, sometimes even distracting._

 _Her father quickly opened the door, and Marilyn stepped inside reluctantly, closing the door behind her. There was a long corridor, lined with several doors. All of them were plain white, with a small golden plate with a name embedded into it._

 _They walked hand in hand, all the way to the other side of the corridor. There, on the right side of the corridor, was a door reading_ Dr Vinnie Wood.

Vinnie.

 _The name on the door already disturbed her; it brought back bad memories. The ventriloquist puppet lying on the table, his arm hanging and his eyes bulging. Marilyn doubted that coincidence was the reason the puppet and the new doctor shared the same name. Perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her, and the plate didn't even say what she thought it did. Perhaps it read_ Conrad Gibson _, or some other fake sounding name._

 _But alas, when her father knocked and the door opened, a smiling face appeared behind the door, confirming what Marilyn thought._

 _"Hello!" He said cheerfully._ _"I'm Dr Wood!" Marilyn sighed as she looked back at the plate, noticing that it was the same. Her father extended his hand in greeting._

 _"I'm Ray." He said, and Dr Wood gave a massive grin. "Nice to meet you! And you must be Marilyn." He said, extending his hand for her to shake. She just looked at it for a moment, before glancing to the left. "Not much of a talker, huh?" He commented, though his fake cheerful expression remained._

 _"Right then, I'll be off now." Her father said, clapping her on the back. "I'll pick you up in an hour, alright?" As he started walking off, Dr Wood called out to him._

 _"Pleasure to meet you, Ray!" "Likewise!" Marilyn watched her father disappear down the hallway, as Dr Wood called her in. "Come in Marilyn!" She stood there rooted for a second or two, but the tone of Dr Wood's next words chilled her spine._

 _"We have quite lot to talk about." Reluctantly, she turned back, and walked into his room. After shutting the door and locking it, Dr Wood strode over to a wooden desk on the other side of the room._

 _"Please, sit." He said, motioning towards a seat opposite the desk. Marilyn did so, and he folded his arms. "Why are you here?" Dr Wood asked, and instantly the mask of the happy man who had greeted her father melted away. Marilyn frowned at the question._

 _"What do you mean?" She asked quietly. Dr Wood rolled his eyes, and opened a book on his desk. "You've been through…" He made a 'tsk' noise, and looked at her in the eyes. "24 different psychologists. They said you were reluctant to talk to any of them."_

 _Something about Dr Wood made Marilyn uncomfortable. Yet somehow, she liked him more than the other doctors. He wasn't a faker, for starters. Plus, he definitely wasn't unintelligent._

 _"They were fakers." Marilyn said quietly. "Either that, or unintelligent." She began to fumble around with her phone in her pocket. Dr Wood saw this, and a strange look came over his face._

 _"Your father must really love you. I heard that he spoils you. Seems true, seeing what you're playing around with there." Marilyn eyed her phone, before looking back at him._

 _"Some peoples' definitions of spoiled are different from others." She told him. Though, she decided to take it out and finger it around. Dr Wood glanced at the phone, and looked back at her. "They want me to get it out of you." He said, and Marilyn gave him a slightly confused look. "They want to know what happened at the theatre."_

 _Most of the doctors had asked this question after several others, such as 'how are you today?', 'what do you like?', and so on so on. But Dr Wood was straightforward. He either got the answers, or he didn't. And Marilyn liked that._

 _"They said that you have nightmares." He continued to press on, his expression serious. "About those men who died; the Rat and the Cat, I believe they were called." Marilyn rolled her eyes at this, trying her best to ignore what he'd said about nightmares._

 _"That was who they were known as; I never found out their names." Taking the easy way out, as always. Dr Wood laughed, noticing what she was trying to do. "I know what you're trying to do. Don't change the subject."_

 _Damn, he was smart. And heck, he was smug about it. He'd figured out a whole lot of things by himself; it was almost like he knew_ exactly _what he was talking about._

 _Marilyn sighed and frowned at his demand._

 _"What…what do you want do know?" She asked, and Dr Wood grinned._

 _"Finally, we're getting somewhere." He grinned, before walking over to her with a sheet of paper and pencil in hand. "First of all…" He said as he set them before her._

 _"I want you to draw them for me."_

 **xXx**

 _"How are you feeling today?" Marilyn gave Dr Wood a nonresponsive shrug, and he frowned. "It's been two weeks." She frowned, and was about to point out that their last (and first) meeting had been a week ago, but realised what he meant. Two weeks since the incident with her brother._

 _"I understand it was a very traumatic experience." He said, and Marilyn scoffed. He was different today. Last time he had been a cold, but still helpful man. Now he was acting like the other 'doctors'. There was no explanation for it, unless._

He's testing me.

 _She had told him how she didn't like the others; he wanted to see her reaction. Find out if she was telling the truth, or just didn't like talking._

Better give him what he wants then.

 _"I understand that it was a very traumatic experience." The words were mostly just rubbing off on her now, and Dr Wood seemed to notice this. "But luckily, your brother wasn't seriously hurt." He continued, and Marilyn growled. He shouldn't have brought up her brother._

 _And what did he mean, not seriously injured? Right now he was lying in a deep coma on a hospital bed, with about a million wires attached to his body. Perhaps that was an exaggeration, but panic did that to the human brain. She had known that going to the new location was a terrible idea, but had her father listened? No. Not at all._

 _"You have to remember, they weren't real. They were just machines." Dr Wood said, causing Marilyn to question whether he could read her mind. And, also to think about the characters. It had still been known as the Rat & Cat Theatre; they hadn't bothered to hide their past. Whether this had affected business, Marilyn hadn't been exactly sure. But the fact that name of the location hadn't changed also reminded her of something else. _

Candy.

 _Only she knew the Cat's name. She and the puppeteer._

 _Somehow he had survived when his co-workers had been killed. She couldn't remember much about the day; only going in the staff room to play hide and seek. Everything which had occurred after she had shut the closet door was a blur._

 _"They aren't capable of harming anyone." Marilyn looked at Dr Wood, and wondered what he was trying to do. Clearly he was either becoming insane, or was still continuing their test. Or trying a different approach. Perhaps he had just been in a bad mood the other day. The last thought sent shivers down her spine. She didn't like this new Dr Wood._

 _"What happened was just an accident." Of course it had been. It wasn't as if people programmed an entertaining robot to kill. Or to grab a child. Or punch them so hard that their ribs cracked. But somehow, the last two had happened to her brother. A fluke in the coding, an oversight of the programmer's eye. That was all it took, and a child could stay comatose for years._

 _"He was just…broken." He started again, and Marilyn raised an eye at his choice of words. Broken could mean many things. Fractured. Bent. Imperfect. Maybe dysfunctional. Her brother had been hardly any of those. "But it's okay now. You're safe here."_

 _And that was where she had drawn the line with the other doctors. With their talk of things being 'okay', and how she was 'safe'. Nothing had ever been 'okay'. No one was ever 'safe'. She knew that from her blurred well of memories, which consisted mostly of two corpses, one silent and the other leaking a puddle of dark red blood. Okay didn't mean okay. Safe never meant safe. In this world you couldn't trust anyone, and yet betrayals and acts of violence came as a shock to anyone who was a stranger to them._

 _But Dr Wood had shown himself to be sensible, at least when he wanted to be. So Marilyn wanted to give him a chance, even if it meant she had to deal with memories of worse doctors._

 _"You remembered them from the theatre?" Dr Wood asked, and Marilyn gave him a small nod. "Ah yes, the old one you and your father went to a year ago, right?" She snorted suddenly, and his eyes glanced to the window momentarily. He already knew this information; he had proved that the last time they'd met. It was almost like meeting him for the first time; except his personality had been changed drastically._

 _"Your father has told me about what happened when you were there." That got Marilyn to perk up, not because he had mentioned the theatre, but her father. She'd figured that the strange calls he had been receiving weren't from a random business owner carrying out some self-promotion._

 _"You got separated from each other that day when the incident happened." Marilyn tilted her head as she tried to figure out where this was all going. Of course it came down to him trying to get what had happened out of her. But it wasn't like Dr Wood was normal. He probably had other questions of his own, which most others wouldn't have asked._

 _"Have you still had nightmares since we last met? Were they about those monsters you drew for me?" And there was that little flair she'd been waiting for. The irrelevant question, followed by an impatient one. Dr Wood was finally back it seemed, and Dr Woody Two-Shoes was thrown out the window._

 _"You're a very creative girl." He said, and she noticed that his cold tone had returned to his voice. His narrowed stare was beginning to show again, and his fake smile had been wiped off his face, replaced with a dark frown. "But you can't let your fears take control of your imagination." He said, and she almost wanted to say 'Well, obviously'. Marilyn had heard several similar lines in the movies. They were supposed to be encouraging, but they just made her cringe, either out of amusement or disapproval._

 _She had a feeling he was recording their conversation; that was probably why he was using his fake happy voice which he had spoken to her father with. Perhaps he hadn't last time, and needed to this time._

 _"In order for your nightmares to end, you have to face your fears. You have to face the monsters. Show them that you're not afraid."_

Oh, for the love of-

 _"Do you understand?"_

You said that to me last week.

 _"It's the only way."_

Wow, never would have guessed.

If only you told me how, genius.

 **xXx**

 _Hush, be quiet. You know what will happen if he catches you._

 _And he always does._

No, that wasn't right. There had been the one time…but that had ended with two bodies.

The woman had said 'stay patient'. That her family was 'coming'. Marilyn didn't really care about her family coming; she was more or less just surprised they'd kept her alive for so long. 15 years.

The woman had also told her that her brother had woken up, literally a few days after she had dropped into her own coma. Correction; she hadn't 'dropped' into a coma. She'd been shot into one, by the hand of the puppeteer.

She clenched her jaw at the thought of that man; or was he really? She remembered him to be nothing but a monster; a marionette, being controlled not by a cross and strings, but the animalistic urges of survival. How had he felt when he had done it, she wondered? Angry, sad, anxious? Or perhaps had he not understood the severity of his actions, till his head lay on a pillow at 10 in the night.

That was a brutal way of thinking about it, she knew. But still, what other way was there?

 _Creak!_

Marilyn perked up as she heard the door open. She watched, silent as her father and brother walked into the room. Marilyn raised an eyebrow at her father, who seemed to keep glancing nervously out the window. Her brother meanwhile, was simply staring at her. An anxious grin was plastered on his face, and she remembered that he had always been that way, 10 years ago.

She didn't smile when her father spoke. The past 10 years, she had grown quite indifferent to positive emotions. She hardly paid any heed to them, unless they were her own.

"Marilyn…" He started, and she rolled her eyes.

"Long time no see, dad." She said before he could finish his sentence. "10 years, I was told." It wasn't like she hadn't known how much time had passed. The calendar had told her everything; but her father didn't know that.

"Yeah, 10 years." He said, and she noticed a genuine smile. "Same with you, Matt." Marilyn said, addressing her brother. He looked taken aback by her words, but quickly recovered. "Ay to that, sis." He grinned cheekily, and she sighed for a moment. "So, uh…" She looked back at her dad, expressionless. "Fill me in on the last 10 years."

There was a jolt in his movements as the gears in his head began to turn, trying to figure out what to tell her.

"Not about the world, dad, just about you and Matt. I can catch up by myself." Marilyn said, waving a hand. Her father looked relieved, while her brother gave her an odd glance before staring at his feet.

"Well, nothing much. Your brother got a girlfriend, actually."

"Oh?" Marilyn looked at Matt accusingly, and he shrugged.

"We broke up after a few months." He said, a little too hastily. "She was too demanding."

"Good for you then." She muttered quietly, and looked at her father again. "That's it? Nothing else?" Her father shook his head, and she sighed, and swung her legs over the edge of the bed onto the floor.

"Marilyn!" Matt said in a panicky tone. She held up a hand, and laughed.

"Jeez, you two. I just want to see whether I can walk." She held onto the edge of the bedside table as she stood up, accidentally knocking off the origami cat. "Fuck. Marilyn muttered as she bent down, grabbing him and placing him back on the table. When she turned around to look at Matt and her father, they were both staring in shock.

"What?" She asked, irritated.

"How do you even know that word?" Her father asked. "You were 8 years old when you fell asleep. I don't recall ever saying it to you."

 _Shit._

Marilyn eyed her brother, noticing the same confused expression on his face.

"It's nothing, really." She tried to wave off the question as she started off towards the window, staggering when she placed down her left leg.

"Crap!" Matt reached out and grabbed her arm to prevent her from falling, as she looked down at her leg.

"What in the world…?" She muttered, lifting up the hospital gown, and jolting when she saw what was there. Three jagged lines were bulging from her skin. New scars, as if she'd been inured just a week ago. But she had been in the Deep-

Yes. She'd been there. She'd been there in the dark, and she'd strayed from the path. She'd tried to reach the other side, she'd ran and ran till her legs ached and her lungs were on fire but he was too fast for her and then he had-

Gone. He had gone, and so had she.

Marilyn pulled the gown back down, and staggered to the window.

"Marilyn. You shouldn't be walking." She recognised her father's voice, and sighed as she looked down at the road beneath them. It was busy, cars bustling back and forth, an intersection far to the left and a roundabout to the right. And down in the centre, almost directly below them.

Marilyn froze, and stared at the thing in the middle of the road. No one else seemed to notice it, not even her father and Matt when they arrived next to her.

"What is it?" Matt asked, and she pointed down at the road.

"You don't see it?" She asked, and he frowned. "Uh, you mean the road?" She whipped her head over to her father, who shrugged. Marilyn looked back at the road, and gasped as the purple spike in the middle of the road began to rise higher and higher, branches beginning to grow off of the twisted trunk. It was a tree, in the middle of the road, and only she could see it. And that could only mean one thing.

"It's calling to me." She muttered to herself. "I need to follow it."

"Marilyn? What are you talking about?" Her father asked, but she was already drawing back her fist, preparing to strike. "Marilyn!" She struck the glass, grinning as it made a satisfying cracking sound. A spider web of cracks had formed from where she'd struck. Drawing her fist back she struck again, and again, the cracks growing larger and larger as she landed her punches onto the glass. She ignored the pain as the skin on her knuckles split open, and her blood was spilled over the floor.

"Marilyn!" She struggled as Matt tried to pull her back, and the door behind them opened.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Someone yelled, probably a doctor. Using the distraction to her advantage, Marilyn broke free of Matt's grasp, and rammed her shoulder into the window. Before she knew it, little shards of glass were flying as everyone in the room screamed, and then she was falling down, hurtling through the air faster and faster as she landed-

 **xXx**

 _\- in the gutter, accidentally gulping up the filthy water as she attempted to breathe, then instantly spitting it back out again in disgust._

 _"Drink piss, Schmidt!" She heard Amanda laugh as she forced her head down into the dirty drain. "Just drink it all up!" The following storm of cackling told Marilyn that all her friends were laughing as she was forced down, struggling to breathe as the rush of water threatened to pull her away._

 _It was a rainy day today, and it made Marilyn angry that Amanda thought this was fun. She always liked it when it rained. It usually made it comfortable, and relaxing. But then people like Amanda always seemed to find witnessing and participating in the suffering of others extremely relaxing._

 _It was days like this where the passing adults might see what Hurricane's true nature really was. Maybe violent crime really was under 1%, but people paid no heed to the cries of schoolchildren and their tall tales of mean bullies, creepy paedophiles and hungry rapists. If Marilyn knew anything for certain, it was that if this was all there was to the world, then she certainly didn't want to live in it._

 _The people in the passing cars either didn't notice her predicament, or just simply chose to ignore the situation as it unfolded. If Marilyn was honest with herself, she was pretty sure that the only person who'd help her was Chief Burke. She'd met him briefly after the incident at the Rat and Cat Theatre. Out of all the people who'd questioned her, he was the only one who genuinely seemed to care about whether she was okay, the only one who asked her questions sensitively, to block out the pain of trauma. God, what she wouldn't give for him to show up right now, just happening to drive by after school, maybe to pick up his son Carlton. Wouldn't that be fun?_

 _But the wishful thinking got Marilyn nowhere as the pressure from Amanda forced her to keep her mouth shut as the crowd of kids behind her jeered and laughed. All she wanted in the world right now was to pull Amanda into the water and force her down instead. But she wasn't strong enough. And she probably never would be._

 _"Hey, let her go!" Someone yelled from behind them. Amanda's grip loosened for a moment, allowing Marilyn a few fleeting seconds of air, gasping as she tilted her head a little to see who had arrived. It was Tracey, her long brown hair plastered to her face, wearing a scowl as she stalked towards the group. "What the fuck is wrong with you people?" She said angrily. "School's just finished, and you just decide 'hey, let's stuff Marilyn's face into the drain', like it's a hilarious joke or something. Well guess what, it's not! Go home, and stop being jerks to her! She's been through more than you probably ever will in your whole life, so shove off!"_

 _Tracey had a natural air of authority around her wherever she went, no matter the weather or time of day. It was something Marilyn, Amanda, and probably everyone else in their Year level admired about her. As she glared at each person, one by one, they began to leave. Amanda scowled back at her, releasing her grip on Marilyn, and walking away, sulking._

 _"Thanks." Marilyn wheezed, as Tracey offered her a hand._

 _"No problem. Can't have you too beat up for tomorrow, can we?" Marilyn frowned, and sighed. "Oh, right. Yeah, I'm testifying tomorrow."_

 _"It's great that you remember, you know?" Tracey said with a smile on her face. "Maybe you'll find closure, somehow."_

 _"Maybe." Marilyn said, but she sounded doubtful. "Hey, it'll be okay." Tracey grinned as they walked down an empty street. "I'm sure you'll do great."_

 _"Thanks." Marilyn smiled. "By the way, what does fuck mean?" The other girl laughed and placed a hand over her mouth. "To be honest, I don't know. But my mum says it when she's angry." They laughed for a moment, before Marilyn frowned. "Tracey, sh." Another pair of footsteps sounded from behind them. The two whirled around, just in time to see a man in a black hoodie running towards them._

 _"Run!" Tracey cried out, just before the man swatted her aside, sending her into a wall with a sickening crack._

 _"No!" Marilyn screamed as the man pulled her back, and threw her onto the road._

 _"You know, you made this far too easy. And I thought you would be paranoid after that day." The man said as he pulled off his hood, and Marilyn froze. The face of the puppeteer looked back at her, covered in white makeup with his bright rosy cheeks. He pulled out a gun, and pressed it to her forehead._

 _"I'm sorry, but I can't let you tell them what you saw." He said softly, pulling the hood back over his head. "I wish I could take it all back. But I can't."_

 _"No, please…" Marilyn whimpered as Tracey ran towards him, screaming. Then he pulled the trigger, as he was pushed away. Marilyn fell backwards, blood streaming from the side of her head. When Tracey had pushed the puppeteer, the gun had been pointed in the wrong direction. But it had still hit, and now the wound was pouring blood like a fountain. She tried to speak, but she couldn't. As the rain fell around her and her blood pooled, Marilyn began to shake, remembering what had happened to the Rat. He's bled from the side of his head, bled until he'd died. And now that same fate was going to happen to Marilyn._

 _Somehow, she wasn't scared. The idea of death didn't really scare her. And so she laughed. She laughed and cried and gurgled as she coughed up blood, and grew oblivious to the pouring rain and the pool of blood. Someone was coming now, their steps splashing in the water as they made their way towards her. Was it Tracey, running this way, or the puppeteer, coming back to finish the job? No, that couldn't be it, she was hearing sirens now. People were coming to help. But she wasn't going to make it, was she? Fate was a cruel being, and it enjoyed torturing the lives of the innocents. As she looked up at the sky, Marilyn gave one last laugh, before her eyes closed, and Tracey screamed out._


	3. A Bright Sunrise on a Rainy Day

**This story is part of the 'The Banishers' universe, and takes place during the events of Stage 01 and Let Me Breathe.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Five Nights at Freddy's or Five Nights at Candy's. Five Nights at Freddy's belongs to Scott Cawthon, and Five Nights at Candy's to Emil Macko. I do NOT own any of the characters currently featured in this fic (keep in mind that OCs may be introduced later on in the story).**

 **Please view my profile if you wish for more information on 'The Banishers', or any of my other stories.**

 **Well holy crap, these chapters just get longer and longer 0_0**

 **Well, I'll leave you to it. I'll probably do some work on Let Me Breathe now, but I'm not sure. And just to clear things up, Stage 01, Let Me Breathe and Strangers But In Dreams are all listed as 'The Banishers Part 1, 2 or 3, but they all take place during the same time, which is why they're being written at the same time. I'm finished, yes, I'm finished.**

 **Enjoy the chapter, and read and review :)**

 **WARNING TO SENSITIVE READERS: Blood, Gore, and Trauma.**

 **Chapter 3**

 **A Bright Sunrise on a Rainy Day**

 _Maybe as she had faded away, Marilyn had been laughing, because she has assumed that she was about to die. And it wasn't as if the assumption wasn't fair; Blood had been leaking from the side of her head, and she hadn't even had the energy to lift her head. But when she'd woken up, it was a different story. The first thing she did was cry. She curled up into a little ball, and wept, her tears falling into the red carpet on which she now lay. And she stayed that way for minutes, hours, maybe even days._

 _But eventually her tears dried, and boredom overtook her fear and sadness. So with nothing else to do, Marilyn sat up and looked at the room. The spot on the carpet where she had lay was now damp and soggy, and she quickly scrambled away from it, bumping into one of the black walls. The only furniture in the room was a green bed, with a matching green pillow. And in the very centre of the room was a blue, origami cat, standing up right._

" _Hello! It's me! I'm the origami cat." The cat said, and Marilyn stared at it with a blank expression as it continued to ramble. "How am I here? You're dreaming now! Sort of…at least. This room you're in is your old room! From before you moved! But right now, it looks like you barely remember it." At this point, she was beginning to wonder if she should have just stayed in her ball. Maybe the cat wouldn't be saying this stupid speech then. "You've had a lot of nightmares lately, right?" Suddenly Marilyn jolted at the word he'd used._

Nightmares.

" _Remember a few years ago? You had trouble sleeping almost every night! So your dad gave you a cassette tape player with a tape with quiet music that he made for you so you could sleep. I bet it would also help you with sleeping better now."_

 _Suddenly Marilyn remembered everything, and smiled as the memories of the tape player came back to her. She'd loved that thing, though she couldn't remember where she'd last seen it. What was it she had named that tape? My Sleepy Music, wasn't it? Yes, that sounded right._

" _So go look for the tape player! I'll stay here if you need my help!" Then the cat fell silent, and Marilyn stood. There was a path leading out of the room, made out of little white dots. Hesitantly she placed her foot onto the path, expecting it to instantly give away. But it held firm, and she smiled as took another step forward, then another, then another, until she was walking down the path without hesitation. The path Marilyn noticed, was the only dry land in this place. Everywhere else, apart from her room, was covered in a thin layer of water, deep enough that when she stepped in it the water splashed around, but shallow enough that it only reached up halfway to her knees. In front of her was a stone, encircled by the path with a few words engraved into it._

 _Beware of the Shadows. Stay on the path._

 _Little did she know, those words would become the very core of her life for the next 10 years. Beware of the Shadows. Stay on the path. The staying on the path bit was obvious. After all, who wouldn't plus, it wasn't as if she wanted to get wet. But the shadows? What shadows? This whole place was made of shadows. When Marilyn looked back to find her room, she couldn't even see it. There was just darkness, water, and the path._

" _This is the Deepscape! This is where your deepest memories are!" Marilyn flinched when she heard the origami cat speaking. "I'm talking to you from the Dreamscape! See those glowing particle-thingies? They make up a path! The tape player should be somewhere ahead. Just remember to stay on the path, so the shadows can't get you!"_

 _The hints about shadows were beginning to drive Marilyn crazy. How many shadows could she see here? There were the ones in her room, the ones cast by the stone, the reflection of the Rat in the water, and her own shadow cast on the-_

 _The reflection on the water? She snapped her head back, and saw nothing. She sighed, and looked around. She was being paranoid. There wasn't a Rat any-_

 _Suddenly something moved in the darkness, causing the water to ripple. And then a purple Rat shot out from the shadows, running at full speed towards the path. Marilyn screamed as the shadow neared, then froze as it reached the path. The shadow Rat clawed at her angrily as the glow from the path began to strengthen, keeping it at bay. She stared at it anxiously as it tilted its head, twitching back and forth before it finally made its decision, and scampered back off into the darkness._

" _So that's what it meant." Marilyn muttered. "Shadows." As she continued down the path, she thought about what the shadow had looked like. It had been a purple Rat-the same Rat who she'd seen crack his skull on the edge of that table. What was he doing here?_

This is where your deepest memories are!

 _Wasn't that what the origami cat had said? That her deepest memories were in this place, the Deepscape? Then that meant that the Shadows were…nightmares. The unwanted memories, that had been engraved so deep into her brain that she couldn't put them away. They stayed here, locked away, but constantly manipulating her, taunting her, making her follow the path they chose._

 _Suddenly Marilyn jolted as she realised she'd kicked something. Looking down, she grinned, grabbing the tape player. It was a little scratched, probably from all the years she had used it, but it still shone in the dark, in contrast to the purple Shadows that she now knew roamed the Deepscape._

 _Smiling to herself, Marilyn walked back in the direction she had come, as she began to plan her next moves. She'd found the tape player. Now she needed to remember her room, find a way to get back to the real world, and maybe, go to sleep. But above all, she needed to survive._

 **xXx**

Marilyn bended her knees as she landed, and was surprised to find that she hadn't broken any bones. Injuries and pain had worked differently in the Deepscape. Broken bones were little more than bruises, and fatal wounds were like scratches. The regenerative energy of that world had followed her to the real world, it seemed.

She staggered a little, and placed her hand against the purple tree before it disappeared back into the ground. The cars around her had all stopped; one of them had attempted to veer away from her, and had crashed into a tree planted on the sidewalk.

"Fuck. Sorry." Marilyn muttered, before looking around at the startled faces. "Uh, apologies. Just saying, they should make the windows out of thicker glass." Everyone was still silent, and she rolled her eyes. "Great. Uh…" Whipping her head around, she spotted another tree, and ran toward it. As soon as she reached it, the tree began to descend into the ground, and another instantly began to grow further ahead. They were forming a trail; a trail Marilyn intended to follow.

"Marilyn!" She heard her father yell, and she growled in annoyance.

"Fuck. Dad, don't worry. I'll see you later. Just want to stretch my legs!" She shouted back, and placed her hand against the third tree. Marilyn cursed as she saw the fourth one sprout on top a building, and grimaced.

"Just need to follow the trail, not the singular tree." She muttered to herself. She ran around the building, and watched the tree disappear, a fifth one appearing in the distance.

"Hey, Marilyn!" Whipping her head around, she scowled at Matt, who was driving towards her in a battered blue Honda. "Where are you going?"

"Just a quick run." She said, and pointed towards the direction of the tree. "I'm heading there."

"You still remember where home is?" He asked, and Marilyn jolted as she realised where the trees were leading her. They'd been set on a certain path, down roads and lanes she had remembered. They were leading her home. Of course; it all made sense.

"Sort of." She replied, giving him a small shrug.

"I'm amazed you still remember. Hop in." Matt said, opening the door for her. "You know, they didn't discharge you yet. Dad's a little miffed."

"And should I care? I'm perfectly fine." Marilyn muttered, crossing her arms after she'd fastened her seatbelt. "You jumped out of a fucking window, Mary. How'd you even survive?"

"I bent my knees." She said, shrugging. He stared at her, wide-eyed at her answer.

"What do you mean, you bent your knees?! That was 21 floors! How the hell did you not break any bones?"

"You're telling me that bending your knees doesn't always break your fall? You mean they lied in school?" Although Marilyn knew that she should have taken at least a little damage from the impact, she was genuinely confused about the 'bending your knees' thing. She'd been in a coma for 10 years, after all.

"Ah, never mind." Matt muttered, then planted his foot on the break. Marilyn jerked forward as the car came to a screeching halt. "We're here." He grinned, and they exited the car. At that moment the tree which stood next to the house sank into the ground, and Marilyn smiled. There was a short footpath past the red brick fence, leading to the door. The house itself was coloured red, with a dark shingled roof and large windows on either side. The grass in the front yard was hopelessly overgrown, though Marilyn was fairly certain that they had only just grown back. Maybe that was just her thinking about the growth rate of the purple trees.

"Come in." Matt grinned and opened the door. Marilyn stepped inside, and smiled as she looked around. It looked almost exactly the same as she'd last seen it; white wallpaper, blue carpet, and a row of family picture hanging on the wall. As she walked down the corridor she halted, opening the door to her left.

Her room had been left untouched. Her toys were still arranged on the floor the way she had left them that morning, and the wallpaper was still the same; red, with a flower pattern. And poking out from underneath her bed…

"Holy fuck." Marilyn muttered, pulling out the tape player. "This is still here." She hugged it to her chest, pressing the _rewind_ button. A whirring noise came from the tape player, and Matt walked in.

"Should I leave you alone?" He asked, and Marilyn nodded. "If you wouldn't mind." She waited until the door closed, then hit the play button. A soothing melody began to play, and she smiled as the soft music filled the room.

My Sleepy Music. The name was still there, written in black marker on a piece of masking tape stuck crudely to the tape player. It still stayed true to its name; when she'd been in the Deepscape, Marilyn had clung to that melody like her life depended on it. She could only sleep when the music played. It was the reason why the nights went by, why the shadows would flee, why she hadn't stepped out of that coma in a state of madness. It had been this music.

Something broke through the dirt, and Marilyn looked up to see another tree sprouting.

"What do you want to show me now?" She muttered, half curious, half annoyed that the trees kept popping up at the worst moments. The skin and her knuckles had already mended, and the few drops of blood which had fallen onto the crimson carpet were now unnoticeable. The Deepscape really was a magical place.

She walked back out the front door, and placed a hand on the tree. Instantly it went underground, and another sprouted up ahead. Marilyn followed, ignoring the strange looks people gave her as she walked along the trail the trees were leading her. It didn't matter what they thought; the trees were all that were important.

As she crossed a road and touched the tree there, Marilyn blinked and looked around, expecting another one to appear. But if there was one, it was nowhere to be seen. She span around in a circle, irritated. Cars, people, road, cars, sky, Shadow Rat, cars-

He had almost gone unnoticed, as he hid in the shadows cast by a large plant hanging over a fence. It had been the purple that had given him away. Purple was a dark colour, but it stood out easily against black. Besides, the long waving tail that was poking out from his back was moving back and forth like a dog would wag their tail.

As Shadow Rat stared at her, Marilyn suddenly realised the tape had finished rewinding. Quickly she mashed the play button, looking back up as her sleepy music began to play. Shadow Rat's empty eye sockets quivered, as his body shook rapidly, the same way it had when he reacted to the bright lights from the Deepscape paths. Maybe it was the rays of sun, affecting him this way.

Marilyn took a few steps towards the Shadow, and then gave him a smirk.

"You know, I was wondering when I'd see you around here. The Dream Trees were already popping up; it was only a matter of time before you appeared." Shadow Rat let out a raspy laugh.

"You followed them here, didn't you? I FREAKIN' KNEW IT!" For the past 10 years, Marilyn had never heard the purple suit speak. And yet, it didn't come as a shock to her, to hear his voice. He still sounded the same as he had back then, all those years ago.

"Second law of the Deepscape; the Dream Trees will take you where you want to go." She shrugged. "Anyone would have followed them, if they could see them."

"Anyone who was a Dream Walker like you are." Shadow Rat corrected. "And there are hardly any."

Marilyn chuckled, and glanced at a passing car.

"You know, I'm surprised you're not trying to kill me. I thought you'd be clawing at my throat by now." He tilted his head, and his arm jerked quickly.

"What's the point? I killed you in the Deepscape, and now we're in the real world again. That was all I wanted; to come back here." She snorted, and sighed.

"You know, I wanted to stay there. I had better memories in the Deepscape than I did in the real world before the coma."

"Well then you're either stupid, or your life sucks." Shadow Rat said, causing Marilyn to laugh.

"Because it wasn't obvious enough, was it?" She replied dryly. "I witnessed the murder of two adults before I turned 8. Then my brother was badly injured by a robot designed to look like one of the men who died, and then the puppeteer and his stupid face decided to shoot me in the head."

"Yeah, so your life SUCKS. Glad we could clear that up." He said loudly, and his foot tapped the pavement. "Although I will admit that I don't regret it. Maybe it was a good place for you, but for me it was just a nightmare. Not because I was scared, mind you. But it was SO, damn, BORING."

"Mm." She pressed the rewind button, and listened to the following whirring sound, until she heard a faint click. "I want to find him. You reckon the Dream Trees will take me to him?"

"They take you where you want to go." Shadow Rat responded. "I might not have been able to step onto the path, but I remember those words carved into the memory stone clear as day. They won't always pop up, but when they do, they'll lead you to him."

"That's reassuring." Marilyn muttered. "What are you going to do now?"

"Me? I'm gonna wait till nightfall. See if I can find Shadow Cat. The idiot just HAD to run in the opposite direction, didn't he? I said 'Cat, Cat, come on, this way', and you know what he said? He said 'Nah, I can handle myself'. That pompous little BASTARD…"

Somehow watching Shadow Rat fume about his friend was highly amusing. A new image came into Marilyn's head; in it, Shadow Rat and Shadow Cat were pointing at each other accusingly, though they were both shrunk to the size of toddlers, and Shadow Cat was wearing a diaper.

 _Crash!_

The two whipped their heads around to see a Dream Tree sprouting on the other side of the road.

"Well, you DID want one to appear." Shadow Rat laughed, and Marilyn pouted. She crossed the road, paying no heed to the cars and placing her hand against the trunk. Another one sprouted up ahead; and underneath it was Shadow Rat.

"How did you get there so fast?" She asked curiously, and he grinned.

"I shadow walked. I'm sensitive to the light, but the Dream Trees offer just a LITTLE bit of shade."

"Right, because that makes perfect sense."

"EXACTLY."

"Well, come on then. These trees aren't going to carry us."

"No," Shadow Rat said, "they're not."

 **xXx**

"Marilyn?" Matt called, for the third time. "God damn it Mary, this isn't funny." His sister had been a little odd before the accident, he had to admit, but jumping out of a window on the 21st storey of a building, attempting to run home on foot, and leaving said home only minutes after arriving? Even _he_ didn't think she was that crazy, and he was her brother.

Scowling, he pulled out his phone and rang his father.

"Hey dad. Mary just disappeared again." Matt said, before Ray could say a word.

"And how exactly did that happen?" He asked angrily. "I told you not to let her out of your sight."

"That was slightly difficult, considering how she insisted that I leave her alone. She was listening to My Sleepy Music, dad. I had too; she's trying to catch up." He attempted to explain. "And she took the tape player, too."

"Well, shit."

"Yeah, shit."

"Ok, just try and find her. She can't have gone far."

"I disagree. Mary ran halfway home in 3 minutes. She's pretty strong, for someone who's been asleep for so long."

"Then take the car."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that." Ray hung up, and Matt muttered a curse. Because of course he was left to do all the work. It was always him."

 **xXx**

"This house?" Marilyn said doubtfully as she placed her hand against the Dream Tree, causing it to sink into the dirt. The house in question was fairly small, a flimsy wooden fence and a rusted screen door the only defence against intruders. "I can't imagine him living here."

"They led you here, didn't they? And they take you where you want to go. UNLESS of course, your subconsciousness told you about a longing to visit a distant relative." Shadow Rat pointed out as they vaulted over the fence.

"Oh, fuck off." Marilyn muttered.

"You use that word a lot. Why is that?" he asked as she went around the side of the house, and peered through one of the windows.

"It's the only curse word I know. Learnt it from Tracey a minute or two before he shot me in the head."

"Sounds fun."

"Yeah, fun. He's not in the living room, if this is even his house." She muttered, and walked over to the next window. "He's not here either. That's-oh, fuck."

"What is it?" Shadow Rat asked, as Marilyn muttered a stream of fucks and damns. "This is my old psychiatrist's house. I just saw a picture of him framed on the wall. That's his bedroom-oh my god. Why did they lead me here?" She muttered, holding her head in her hands. "I wanted to find the puppeteer, not Dr Wood."

Shadow Rat perked up at that, and she frowned.

"What is it?"

"You said his name was Wood?" He asked. "Any chance his first name was Vinnie?" Marilyn froze.

"You knew him." She said in disbelief, and he nodded.

"Yeah, I knew Vinnie. Or at least I think I did. My memories are jumbled up, probably by the Deepscape."

"There's got to be something. Marilyn muttered as she looked around the room. There were quite a few things pinned to the wall. One of them looked like a newspaper article, though she couldn't see what is said. There was the picture of him she'd seen earlier, and then-

Marilyn gasped and placed a hand over her mouth.

"Oh my god." Right next to the picture, was a framed piece of paper. It read DIPLOMA, and something about acting. She'd seen that before. She'd seen that in the room where the Rat and Cat had died.

"He's...the puppeteer." When she'd had Dr Wood as her psychiatrist, he'd been the puppeteer that whole time. That was…what was the word again? Shocking?

"He was watching me the whole time. And as soon as I remembered, he tried to kill me." Marilyn muttered. "That sneaky little fuck."

Both of them were silent for a while, before Shadow Rat attempted to lighten the mood.

"You seriously need to learn how to use that word." He muttered quietly as she scowled.

"I don't care. That guy put me through hell. I trusted him. I didn't see who he was." A tear rolled down her face, and she let it fall onto the grass. "This is insane." At that moment the music ended, and Shadow Rat scampered off into the darkness. At least he didn't need to ask her whether she wanted to be left alone.

Sighing she headed back onto the path. She really didn't want to see his face again. Even without the makeup. Still the same man, after all.

Marilyn realised suddenly that she'd bumped into someone. The girl she'd hit suddenly dropped what she was carrying, a scowled.

"Oh god, I'm sorry." She attempted to help, but the girl waved her off.

"Don't worry about it. Accidents happen." She picked up the books she'd been carrying, and looked at Marilyn. "What's up with the hospital gown?" She looked at herself, remembering what she was wearing.

"Oh yeah. Uh, just left hospital. Coma." She explained, and the girl grimaced.

"Oh. Believe me, I know how much those suck. How long were you under?"

"Uh, 10 years."

"10 years." The girl sucked in her cheeks for a moment. "Fuck. You must have missed a lot. I mean, 10 years. Wow. That's like-" Suddenly she froze, and dropped her books again. "Marilyn?"

She put a hand over her mouth, and realised how familiar the other girl looked.

"No way. Tracey?" A few seconds of silence passed, before the two embraced each other.

"You're looking well, for someone who just woke up after 10 years." Tracey joked. "How are you?"

"Surprisingly, I'm not feeling too bad." Marilyn admitted, grinning. "What about you?"

"Meh, not bad. I've been alright. Just living life. It sort of sucked without you around, though. Didn't have many friends."

"Huh. But you're alright though?"

"…yeah more or less."

"What is that meant to mean?" Marilyn asked. "You hesitated for a moment." Tracey winced before she answered, lightly rubbing her arm. "…eh. It's just a little hard for me to sleep sometimes. The day you got shot, I-" She frowned and dipped her head. "You remember how I said I knew how much comas sucked?"

"Shit. What did he do to you?"

"Nothing Marilyn, I-"

"You've been to the Deepscape too." It wasn't a question. Everything Tracey had done; her talking about comas, her insomnia, and the fact that she was constantly rubbing her arm when she recalled something bad.

"They got you on your arm." She guessed, and Tracey flinched.

"How did you know?" She asked warily, and Marilyn sighed.

"You're rubbing it all the time." She glanced down, flinching and pulling it away. "They got me on my leg." Marilyn said, pulling up the gown to show her the scars. "I saw Shadows of the Rat and Cat. What about you?" Tracey was silent, as she looked at the ground.

"I…I saw the puppeteer." She said quietly, and began to rub her arm again. "After I knocked into him, I ran. I tried to get help. But, well, he was right on my tail. I didn't even make it to the end of the road. He pulled me back, threw me onto the ground, real fucking hard. And I couldn't fight back, he was way too strong. And then he…he fucking raped me."

There was silence for a moment or two, as Marilyn registered the information. The puppeteer, he…raped her?

"I fainted. I…guess I just couldn't handle it. It…it fucking hurt. And then I woke up a few moments later, in the dark."

"Holy fuck." Marilyn muttered as Tracey shuddered. "How long were you under?"

"I think a year or two. I…I thought I would go crazy in there. How did you even make it out of there without being in a state of madness?"

"Honestly? I just watched the calendar, ticked off the days, collected my memories. I met a few toys of mine in there. They talked; it was sort of weird."

"Sounds like you did go mad."

"Yeah, probably." Marilyn admitted. She wondered if she should tell Tracey that the puppeteer's house was the one they were standing next to right now. But that would probably just make her panic.

"Have you gone back?" Tracey asked curiously, and Marilyn frowned.

"What do you mean?" She asked, and Tracey face-palmed.

"So you haven't gone back. Don't worry, it took me a while to figure it out." Marilyn tilted her head as Tracey headed down a nearby side street, motioning for her to follow. "You have to…remember what happened. The reason you entered the Deepscape. See, you were shot in the head by the puppeteer, but that happened because you witnessed the murders of the Rat and Cat. So in other words, you have to relive that memory. And it'll open for you."

Marilyn gave her a doubtful look.

"You're telling me you have to relive yourself getting raped every time you want to go back?"

"Oh, fuck off. It's not that bad once you've done it so many times."

"Then what was that, when you told me about it earlier? You were shaking and all that crap."

"That was me _talking_ about it, it's a lot worse than reliving it." Tracey explained. She extended out a hand and brought it down like a knife, and a purple ripple sliced through the air. "See? It's like a portal that needs to be powered by thought. There's a point in the memory, a climax. It's the thing that affected you the most."

"Huh." Marilyn muttered, and extended her hand.

 _He pushed with all his might, sending the Rat flying backwards, arms windmilling in panic. Marilyn gasped as his head smashed against the table holding Vinnie, whose arm fell off the table from the following wobble. The costumed man fell to the floor, no sound coming from his mouth. She watched, terrified as she noticed that where the Rat had hit his head, there was now a red patch of blood._

She brought her hand down, but nothing happened. Marilyn clenched her teeth, trying again.

" _What's with all the…" The Cat began to say, but stopped when he saw the body on the floor. A small pool of blood had begun to drip from his head, and was now even wider than the Rat's costumed mask. "What happened!?" He exclaimed, and the puppeteer made a panicked motion._

" _LOCK THE DOOR!" He said, and the Cat obeyed, quickly turning around the shut the door, twisting the small lock in the door handle. He looked back and walked up to the puppeteer. "I…I didn't mean to, it was an accident, I swear! He just, he…" He started saying. Sweat had begun to form on his face, and now two tear streaks had formed from his eyes, causing his white face paint to drip off._

Still nothing. Why wasn't this working? She closed her eyes, to prevent herself from being overtaken by the memory.

 _At that moment, she wanted so badly to jump out of the closet and tell the Cat to turn around. He was a good man, and good men didn't deserve to die. But her mind told her no. And the mind always won._

 _His hands quickly grabbed around the Cat's neck, just as the Rat had done to him. His gloved fingers began to tighten, and the Cat-_

Suddenly as she brought her hand down, the air rippled, and Marilyn found herself staring into a dark abyss, a rippling void in the fabric of time and space.

"Wow." She muttered, taking a few steps back. "That was pretty sudden."

"You don't say. That's the biggest portal I've ever seen." It really was pretty big. It stood taller than both of the girls put together, and about half as wide.

"So I just walk in?"

"Yeah."

"How do I get out?"

"Oh, that? You just kill yourself." Tracey said, a completely serious expression on her face.

"You've got to be kidding me." Marilyn muttered as she looked back at the portal.

"Not really. Easiest way is to just step off the path."

"I've kind of befriended one of the Shadows."

"Well, then you can just ask them to kill you."

"I'd really rather not. What about opening another portal?" She asked, and Tracey frowned.

"I've never tried something like that. Seems a little risky, to be honest, and I don't know how you'd power the portal. But by all means, go ahead and try it. I guess it can't really hurt, can it?"

Marilyn muttered quietly in agreement, and placed one foot into the portal. There was no resistance, no feeling; it was just like she was walking down a corridor.

"Just don't tough the edges." Tracey warned as she stepped in next to her. "I've still got scars; it hurts like hell."

"Right, lovely." Marilyn murmured, and looked around. They were on the path, the water still as the little particles glowed. The portal instantly closed behind them as Tracey stepped through, leaving the path as the only light source.

"I wonder where we are." Marilyn said, trying to see any familiar landmarks.

"What do you mean? Are you saying you used to keep your bearings in here? I lost my room a week after I got here." Tracey admitted sheepishly.

"It was a little difficult. But in my room was a bunch of paper and some coloured pencils, so yeah, I drew a map. And because it drew from my memory, it never really ran out. It always reverted to the way I last remembered it." Marilyn explained as they headed down the path. "Oh look, there's a Memory Stone!" She exclaimed, pointing at a stone with words engraved into it. "I only ever found a few of these. We're either close to my room, or really far away from it."

They approached the stone, Marilyn reading the words with a grin on her face.

"Beware of the Shadows. Stay on the path. God, I still remember the moment I read this." Marilyn laughed. "My room is literally only a few hundred metres from here. Come on." Tracey smiled as they continued down the path.

"You actually seem to like it here." She said, sounding confused.

"Meh. Life was more interesting here than it was in the real world, that's for sure. Plus, it was a lot more peaceful. I just had to stay on the path, and Shadows couldn't hurt me."

"They got to you eventually." Tracey pointed out.

"Same with you, though."

"Ah, that's true."

A house had appeared ahead, and Marilyn whooped as she ran to it, Tracey struggling to keep up. It looked exactly the same as it did in real life. A front yard and gate had now appeared, probably from her visiting it in the real world. But it still felt the same way it had always felt.

 _Home._

Marilyn vaulted over the fence, and ran to the front door. She twisted the doorknob, smirking as it swung open.

"You know, there wasn't always a door here." She said as Tracey followed her into the house. She tapped one of the pictures in the hall, and watched as the Rat suddenly appeared in the background. "Those pictures aren't accurate." Marilyn told her as she whipped her head around. "They're infected, by the nightmares."

"Ah." Tracey muttered to herself quietly as Marilyn flung open the door to her room, and grinned.

"Well, this is interesting. It's not the same as it was in my house. That toy should be a little more to the left…Matt, that sneaky bastard. Though I wonder…" She turned around and flung open the closet, revealing several stacks of clothes. "Yup. They're still here. God, this place works miracles."

"I'm a little confused." Tracey said as Marilyn pulled something out of the pink closet. "How come there are clothes that fit you in here?"

"The room adapted to what I needed. If I needed food, I got food. Water, I got water. Clothes, I got clothes; a crap ton of them, actually. You mind turning around for a moment?"

"Y-Yeah, sure." Tracey spluttered, turning as Marilyn threw off the hospital gown, and pulled on a green T-shirt and a pair of ripped jeans. She tied her hair back, and grinned when she looked in the mirror.

"I'm done. You can look now." She announced, and Tracey spun around. "How do I look?" Marilyn asked, and Tracey tilted her head.

"Pretty good." She admitted, and looked at the jeans. "Were those always ripped?"

"Oh, these?" Marilyn tilted her head down. "I'm pretty sure they were. The Deepscape has style." She smirked, and closed the closet door. "Alright. So, about that portal…"

"Right. Yeah, I'm still not sure what you would have to recall." Tracey said as Marilyn sat down on her bed, absentmindedly rubbing her leg.

"You said that to get in, we have to relive what made us come here in the first place. What if to get out, we just have to relive how we got caught?"

"Huh. I never thought of that."

"Really, after so long? I thought that up in 10 seconds."

Tracey rolled her eyes as Marilyn closed her own, and tried to remember how she'd been caught.

 _She could see the Dream Trees, leading her to where she wanted to go. Something from the real world had carried over; maybe a newspaper article, maybe a broken toy. All she needed was to find out what it was._

 _She walked past Memory Stones and other broken toys as she neared the first of the Dream Trees. She places a hand against it, and watched as it sunk into the ground. Suddenly she heard a ripple behind her, and froze with realisation; she'd been so focused on getting to the trees, she'd strayed away from the path._

 _She sprinted, ignoring the sounds of Shadow Rat loping behind her, his teeth chattering as her limbs twitched and his head continued to spasm. Up ahead a purple shadow appeared in the water, and Shadow Cat leapt out, showing his razor sharp claws. Panicking, she veered to the left, as Shadow Rat accidentally crashed into a newly sprouted Dream Tree._

 _Shadow Cat leapt over the purple trees, and bared his teeth. She screamed and ducked, as the feline flew overhead, and tumbled in the water. Suddenly she could hear the sound of Shadow Rat right behind her, and she ran faster. She ran and she ran, till her feet were sore and her lungs were on fire, but he was still too fast for her and as his clawed hand reached out and grabbed her leg she screamed as she-_

-pulled her hand down, and the real world rippled in front of her.

"No way." Tracey said disbelievingly, and put her hand through the portal. "It actually worked."

"I told you." Marilyn smiled and walked through, finding herself in her room. "It's like we just walked through a mirror."

"True." Tracey agreed, and turned to look at her. "How did it feel?" She asked. "To relive it again?"

"Honestly? It was easier than getting in." Marilyn said with a shrug. "You should try it later."

"Sounds good."

"Mm."

"You hungry?"

"…not really." A few seconds later Marilyn's stomach growled, and Tracey snickered.

"You want to go get food? It's on me. We can go to the diner down the road."

"Cool, just wait a second. I've gotta rewind my tape." Tracey watched as Marilyn pressed the rewind button, and raised an eyebrow. "You know, you could use earphones."

"What are those?"

She laughed at her friend's expression, and walked with her out of the house.

"Okay, we're buying you a pair right after we eat."

"Cool. God, you're right. I am hungry."

 **xXx**

"Shadow Cat, come OUT! We are NOT playing HIDE-AND-SEEK!" Shadow Rat yelled angrily as he walked in the darkness, his feet making little splashes in the water. "This isn't FUNNY! I thought we agreed to stop being IDIOTS! We're FREE! We can go back home! Where ARE you?!"

He whipped his head around, and stomped off in another direction, his head twitching impatiently.

"COME ON!" Shadow Rat cried out, and kicked at the water, spraying the path with the tiny droplets. It was too bad he couldn't cross it; to be honest, Shadow Cat was probably on the other side, maybe playing a stupid board game against himself. Maybe Monopoly.

Gritting his teeth, Shadow Rat bounded alongside the path, trying to find a point where it ended. He giggled with happiness as he found a 'dead end', and looped around to the other side.

"Come on, Shadow Cat! Are you AFRAID-" He staggered to a halt, his grin twisted into a look of horror. "Oh, SHIT. You've got to be kidding me." He kneeled down, and pulled out a purple fabric shoulder casing. "No, no no. It can't be." Shadow Rat looked around, and felt his heart sink as he saw the rest of Shadow Cat's body. He was just lying there, empty eyes staring at nothing, and the water covering half his body. It had soaked through the costume, and was running through his mouth. The armoured casing around his neck was broken, and three diagonal slashes were along his chest.

"No, come on. You're kidding. This is why WE SHOULD HAVE STAYED TOGETHER!" Shadow Rat screamed, throwing down the piece of shoulder casing. "How could this HAPPEN?! This was meant to be a SAFE place!" He stomped his foot as he stared down at Shadow Cat, looking again at the broken skin around his neck. Could it be…?

He looked away, and bounded off into the darkness, only one goal on his mind.

To kill the puppeteer.


	4. Darkness Through a Mask Made of Light

**This story is part of the 'The Banishers' universe, and takes place during the events of Stage 01 and Let Me Breathe.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Five Nights at Freddy's or Five Nights at Candy's. Five Nights at Freddy's belongs to Scott Cawthon, and Five Nights at Candy's to Emil Macko. I do NOT own any of the characters currently featured in this fic (keep in mind that OCs may be introduced later on in the story).**

 **Please view my profile if you wish for more information on 'The Banishers', or any of my other stories.**

 **Thanks to smilesforeverhappy for reviewing.**

 **Enjoy the chapter, and read and review :)**

 **WARNING TO SENSITIVE READERS: Blood, Gore, and Trauma, minor themes of Self Harm.**

 **Chapter 4**

 **Darkness Through a Mask Made of Light**

"What do you think happened to him?" Marilyn asked, and Tracey frowned.

"I don't know. It's almost like he was killed by another Shadow." She replied, and looked over at Shadow Rat. "You didn't see this happen?"

"No." He said sulkily, and kicked at the water. "Not at all; I found him like this."

"This doesn't make sense; there shouldn't be any other Shadows in this part of the Deepscape." Marilyn muttered. They were observing Shadow Cat's body; nothing had changed, albeit the fact that a single piece of his casing had floated away.

She touched his suit, and jumped back quickly as the entire thing suddenly dissolved.

"What the hell? I swear guys, I didn't-" When she turned around, she realised that Tracey and Shadow Rat were staring at her.

"Holy crap." Tracey muttered. "She bonded with it."

"Yeah." Shadow Rat said in a hushed tone. "I've never seen this before."

"I've done it, but I thought it was just an abnormality. But if Marilyn's doing it…"

"Guys." Marilyn said as she interrupted the hushed conversation the two were having. "Please, tell me what's going on." Shadow Rat looked at Tracey uncomfortably, who shrugged.

"May as well tell her. Marilyn, look at your reflection." She gave the two an odd glance before looking down into the water; but it wasn't her face that was there. Instead she saw Shadow Cat, with his lifeless eyes, purple costume, and sharpened teeth.

"W-What the hell?!" She looked at her hand, and realised that it was now a purple claw, covered in stitches and embedded with nuts and bolts. "Guys, what's happening to me?!"

"Marilyn. Marilyn, calm down." Tracey grabbed her shoulder and steadied her as she attempted to touch her face, only to feel hard fabric. "It's okay. Just calm down, just calm down. Don't panic." Marilyn's breathing began to slow, until it was just as steady as it had been before. "Now try and imagine how you got here. Find the climax. You've done it before."

Marilyn nodded fervently, and began to picture the scene where the Cat had died. She'd already done this twice now, but for some reason this seemed harder than the other times. It was like there was a force trying to fight against her, in some twisted battle for the domination of her mind.

"Just picture the climax, Marilyn. The climax." Tracey said in a soothing voice, and gave her a small hug. "You can do this." Her smile glowed warmly, and Marilyn tried harder.

 _Hands. Neck. Squeeze. Cat._

 _Puppeteer. Gasping. Screams. Falling-_

Marilyn jerked forward suddenly, and threw up in the water, the bile forming a sticky mixture with the liquid. She gasped for breath as she looked at her reflection, watching as Shadow Cat's image began to fade away, and was replaced by hers.

"Are you alright?" Tracey asked, and Marilyn gave her a shaky nod.

"I think so. Just a little…" she sighed, and looked back at the place Shadow Cat had lain earlier. "I'm a little shaken up. W-What was that?"

"A bond." Tracey explained. "I had the same thing happen to me; I touched a fallen Deepscape creature, and I bonded with its body. I freaked out a lot. I was terrified; but then I remembered the climax. I let myself get consumed by the memory, and before I knew it, I was back to normal."

"Are you still bonded with this thing?" Marilyn asked, and Tracey nodded.

"Yeah. It's name is Paper Cut." She said, and Marilyn forward a little bit. "Can you show me?" She pressed, and Tracey shrugged.

"I don't see why not. Just watch my arm." There was silence as Marilyn focused on Tracey's arm, and drew back a little as a layer of blue began to appear over it, extending all the way to her hand. From there it grew into a gleaming silver, which studded out like a chimney from a house; out of place, yet natural.

"Wow." She blinked once, twice, before standing up and shaking some of the water out of her shoes. "And I thought I'd already found out how weird this place is." Tracey laughed a little and shook her head knowingly as she joined her.

"God, you barely know 50%. Even I don't know the full picture. This place…it's shrouded in mystery." Marilyn didn't respond as she placed her newly bought earphones in her ears, and took her tape player out of her jeans pocket. She clicked the _Play_ button, and hummed along with the melodic tune.

Tracey rolled her eyes as Marilyn turned to Shadow Rat.

"Tell us if you see anything else. I'm gonna go catch a nap."

"Yeah, you do that." He muttered dejectedly. "I'll just stay here."

"Sounds good." Marilyn pulled down her hand, and walked without hesitation through the portal that formed. Tracey sighed as it closed, and looked over at where Marilyn had puked.

"Tough life." She said, and Shadow Rat shrugged.

"I'm okay with it. At least I'm still SLIGHTLY useful, even after I'm dead."

"Always looking on the bright side, aren't you?" Tracey asked.

"Hey, EVERY cloud has a silver lining." Shadow Rat remarked, and she chuckled.

"That's true. Well, I'll be off. I've got business to take care of."

"Take care of yourself."

"Right back at you."

Shadow Rat sighed as Tracey meandered onto the path, and strolled off into the distance. The particles glowed brightly every time she stepped on them, making little waves of light, until she had faded away and was only a speck on the horizon.

 **xXx**

"They talk about them everywhere. I mean, come on. It isn't _that_ interesting. Just let it be; if you're clean, why would you worry? Just leave them be!" Marilyn rambled as she walked down the footpath, reading the latest headlines. "More Scourge activity? Who gives a fuck? They're better at their jobs than the police, anyway."

Living in a city populated with vigilantes, was, without a doubt, quite a bother. It was the only thing that got the headlines, and in the end, it was all old news. Marilyn didn't give two shits about whether Springtrap and her gang of merry murderers had slain another rapist dead; it didn't make a difference to her. If they killed the puppeteer, though; now, that would be an interesting story. Catch a killer and a rapist in one. Sounds like a deal.

She paused momentarily, taking the tape player out of her pocket and pressing the rewind button. Marilyn sighed as she heard the familiar noise of a portal opening behind her.

"You're looking pretty roughed up." Tracey remarked as she stepped out of the Deepscape, and closed the portal behind her. "What's up?"

"Don't give me that nonsense. You _know_ what's up. I'm fucking bonded with a purple cat costume."

"No, that's not what I meant." She motioned at the passing cars, and frowned. "You said that you wanted to _sleep_. What are you doing here?"

"Opened the portal in the wrong place." Marilyn explained. "I'm walking home."

"You could have just went back in and out." Tracey pointed out. "Why are you stalling?" Her friend sighed, as she rubbed her leg.

"I don't want to see Matt. He keeps questioning me." She said. "I don't want to lie to him, but I can't tell him the truth either."

"Ah. Yeah, okay, I feel you. I understand." Tracey bit her lip as Marilyn tossed the newspaper aside.

"The only headlines are about the Scourge. Who gives a fuck?" She asked bitterly as Tracey's face concerted into a frown.

"That's been going on since the start of the year. If anything, their presence is just encouraging more crime."

"Really? Well, fuck them, then." Marilyn muttered as they walked across the street. She ignored the honking horns as she took the tape player out of her pocket, and pressed play. "What are you _really_ doing here, Tracey?" She asked, and Tracey shrugged uncomfortably.

"You made a bond, Marilyn. I thought that I was the only one who could. But now I know differently. I…I need to show you something." Marilyn raised an eyebrow, then sighed.

"Okay. What is it?" Tracey opened up a portal with her hand, and Marilyn stepped in after her, ending up back in the Deepscape.

"I've been to your section of the Deepscape." Tracey said as she led her down a path. "But you haven't been to mine."

"And _why_ did you want me to go to yours?" Marilyn asked, and Tracey just laughed.

"Oh, you'll see soon enough." Up ahead, Marilyn could the see the faint outline of a building, painted an extremely dark shade of blue. It wasn't very tall, and had a completely flat roof. There were small figures walking around the outside of the building, and she frowned when she saw them.

"There are people there." She said, and Tracey laughed.

"They don't like that word. They're not exactly human." One of the figures turned to look at them, and Marilyn froze. She couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it was coloured purple, like a shadow, and its eyes were glowing brightly. Then it ran behind the building, disappearing from their view.

"Who was that?" She asked Tracey curiously.

"That's William. But he changed his name when he arrived here; everyone did. Now he's the Midnight Motorist." Two bright headlights came to life in the shadows behind the house, and suddenly a purple car was roaring towards them. The tires squealed as the driver slammed his foot onto the brakes, and the car came to a halt. The window came down, and Marilyn realised that the driver was William. It was hard to tell what he looked like; the light shining from his eyes blinded her.

He gave Tracey a smile, and chuckled.

"Paper. Everyone's been looking for you." Marilyn twisted her head towards her, and frowned.

"Paper?"

"Just managing some business, Mid." Tracey replied, ignoring Marilyn's question.

"Right then. I'm guessing that the _business_ is this young lady?" He asked, and she nodded.

"Yeah. She hasn't got a name yet, you know." She said. "She's been in the Deepscape for 10 years, though."

"Wow." William laughed, pressing a button which made the back door swing open. "That's longer than anyone else. Hop in. I'll drive you to the core." A feeling of distrust lingering at the back of her mind, Marilyn hesitantly stepped inside the car, Tracey following right after her.

"There was an attack the other day, Paper." William said nonchalantly, and suddenly Tracey was sitting upright, completely alert.

"What? Who was it?" She asked in a concerned tone. The man gave her a dismissive shrug, and turned the rear view mirror a little to the right.

"Not sure. A bunch of men dressed in black arrived and tried to get to the core. They failed tremendously, in case you were wondering. I ran a few of them over before they could do anything, and the others killed the rest." Tracey looked out the window into the endless darkness, and muttered something to herself quietly. Marilyn didn't pick it up, but William let out a raspy laugh as he pulled up next to the building.

"Well, get out, then." He said briskly, and the two girls silently obeyed.

"What's up with him?" Marilyn asked Tracey as she led her to a glass sliding door. "And what the fuck is the core? None of this is making sense; heck, what even is this place?"

"Relax." Tracey said quietly as the door slid open to let them inside. "And as long as we're in the presence of another entity here, you can't call me Tracey. They know me as Paper."

"You're avoiding the question." Marilyn huffed, and looked around the interior of the building. The light was dim, the only sources being seemingly tiny LED lights on the ceiling, which flickered every few seconds. The interior of the building seemed to be constructed almost entirely out of metal. Pipes ran along the walls and ceilings, all leading to a grey cylinder in the very centre of the room.

"That's a conversion chamber." Tracey said immediately after noticing Marilyn's gaze. "I'll tell you what it does a little later. And don't worry, all your questions will be answered." She led her to an intimidating door on the other side of the room, and pressed her hand against a panel. She pulled her hand away, and Marilyn watched in fascination as it read her handprint, and opened the door. The metal slid slowly out of the way, and she watched, breathless as an incredibly bright light began to seep through the ever growing gap.

"That," Tracey pointed towards the light, and smiled, "is the core, Marilyn. It's the reason why this building exists, why the Deepscape exists."

"It's beautiful." Marilyn muttered as the door came to a halt, and she walked inside, her eyes blinking into the light. There was a glowing orb floating in the air, sending out the luminescent rays of light as it hovered there, moving up and down slowly.

"Don't let yourself be hypnotised by how beautiful it is." Tracey said, shaking her shoulder and snapping her out of the trance. "I did that once; it wasn't pretty. I stood there for a whole week before someone found me."

"Why is it here?" Marilyn asked. "It's just…floating there."

"Think of this place as…say, another Plane of Reality." Tracey said, in an attempt to explain the situation. "We have our world, and the Deepscape. Now imagine that there are hundreds of these Planes, possible even infinite; and now imagine that every single one of these shares a core, which is present in every single world. Its presence is shared in every Reality, the very same core. Every Plane runs off of this core, draws its energy from it. But it that core was destroyed, then…" She snapped her fingers, and scowled. "…well, the universe would be gone. Just like that. The core is present in every Reality, but those places are infinite, full of space. The Deepscape, however, is just one flat expanse of land. It was easy for people to find the core. And we, the people who know about this place; we have to protect it. It's our job."

Marilyn looked back at the core, and reached out a hand to touch it.

"Don't!" Tracey pulled back her hand, causing her to stumble back. "One touch, and you'll evaporate." Marilyn shivered, and shrank away. Tracey sighed, placing her hand on the panel to seal the door. "The things out there, like William; I told you that they aren't really human, or at least not anymore. The truth is, I was the one who found the core." Marilyn whipped her head towards her in disbelief.

"No way." She muttered, and Tracey shook her head,

"No, it's true. When I found it I was an idiot; I looked at it for a week, like I told you. And I saw all the other Realities, stacked on top of each other. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Worlds without violence, only peace. It was…incredible. And that was how they caught me; the shadows, I mean. That was how I woke up. That's why I returned as soon as I could; I understood the power, the responsibility I'd taken on, just by looking into the core. I bonded myself with Paper Cut, and I started recruiting.

"I knew I couldn't defend the core just by myself. It was a ridiculous task, and one I never could have achieved without help. Then I found William. He was dead when I found him; in fact, it wasn't even him I found. I found the car which he drove. With that car, he'd managed to kill a little girl. I didn't know what her name was, but he was a broken man. His spirit still lingered in that car, and I brought it to the Deepscape.

"It was an object of malice, one of evil that had once killed an innocent person. But that was when the conversion chambers appeared. You said it yourself; the Deepscape adapts to what you need. The building built itself up, and I used the conversion chamber to change its allegiance. And now William is here today, no longer broken. He's helping me defend the core, with all the others who I managed to convert as well." Tracey laughed at the dumbfounded expression on Marilyn's face. "It's a lot, isn't it? But hey, don't worry, everything's cool. We've got a lot of defences now."

"So you've been doing this since you returned?" Marilyn asked, and Tracey nodded. "Holy fuck." She muttered, and leaned against the wall, looking at the floor. "Is that why they call you Paper? Paper Cut?" Tracey smirked, and rubbed her arm.

"Yeah. Paper Cut; I'm not sure what he was. I'd never even seen him before. But I bonded with him, and now I can _become_ him. It's a weird feeling."

"Weird indeed." Marilyn agreed, as she flexed her hand, and let it transform into a purple claw. "I'm getting the hang of changing. It's a strange feeling, but I like it. When I'm Shadow Cat, I'm stronger. I'm faster."

"It's a lot of power." Tracey said, folding her arms. "It's possible to let it blind you, though. Don't let that happen."

"What do you think I am, an idiot?" Marilyn asked, and shook her head. A wave of purple consumed her body, and suddenly it was Shadow Cat who stood before her, his empty eyes looking right into hers.

"Do you want to meet Paper Cut?" Tracey questioned, and Marilyn nodded her head, after a little hesitation. Tracey closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. A wave of light blue began to fold over her body, like paper. Her arms became long and slender blades, and suddenly her face was covered with blue paper, shaped like an origami cat. A few more blades extended out of her back like arms, drifting up and down.

Marilyn took a step back, and Shadow Cat melted away.

"No way. You disappeared." She muttered. "No, you're gone. You…" She clutched at her head. "Fuck."

"What is it?" The paper began to fold back on itself, and Tracey took a step forward, halting abruptly as Marilyn put up her hand.

"Wait a second. Just give me a minute." The girl tucked her black hair behind her ear, breathing heavily. "He's dead. You bonded with him-oh my god." She looked at the floor and sniffled, tears in her eyes. "You bonded with the Origami Cat. You bonded with him." Tracey noticed that Marilyn's left hand clenching into a fist, and gulped nervously.

"Marilyn-"

"I made him with my mum." The girl muttered quietly. "A week before she died, we made him. I took him everywhere, I saw him everywhere; he was the only one of my possessions who followed me to the Deepscape instantly. And now he's…a part of _you_. You didn't even know _what_ he was."

"Marilyn, I get it." Tracey held out her hands in front of her. "Paper Cut was important to you. But you have to face the facts; he's long dead."

"I know." Marilyn replied wistfully. "I know. It's just that I can't believe I didn't know he was gone. I'm such an-argh!" She suddenly turned her head towards the wall and bashed her face into the hard metal.

"Marilyn!" Tracey grabbed her shoulders and attempted to pull her away, but the girl held fast, continuing to bash her head. "Stop it!"

"I could never do anything right! I'm useless! Fuck! Fuck!" Marilyn's tears hit the ground like a steady rain, as Tracey pulled her into a hug.

"You're not useless. You're not useless." The brunette said softly, and Marilyn hugged her back, crying into her shoulder.

"I am. I didn't even know that he was dead. How did I not get suspicious that he just disappeared that day? I might have been able to save him, and I didn't." She said bitterly. "Bad things happen to everyone close to me, and it's _my_ fault. All of it."

"Don't say that. You know that's not true."

"Think about it, Trace. The Rat and Cat; both dead. My brother; put into a coma for a whole year. You; raped by the puppeteer and thrown into the Deepscape. And now the Origami Cat." Tracey noticed that Marilyn's forehead was bleeding, and cursed.

"Fuck. How fast can you heal?" She asked.

"Pretty fast in here. Why?"

"It's nothing." Tracey said hurriedly, as she separated herself from Marilyn's embrace. "We should probably get out of here." The other girl looked up at her, a confused look on her face. Her eyes were red from crying and the blood was beginning to drip down the side of her face, but she nodded anyway, taking her hand.

"How did you get the possessed items?" Marilyn asked suddenly as the sliding door slid open for them to exit. Tracey gave her an odd look, before stepping back into the building so the door would close.

"I could tell. I did my research, and I figured out what was what." She answered as Marilyn leaned against the wall. "I mean, they aren't too difficult to see; though I'm pretty sure that people don't notice. They're even transporting a haunted mask to a museum tonight, and they don't even know what it is." Tracey frowned when she saw Marilyn perking up. "What?"

"Do you normally go it alone?" The dark haired girl asked her. "Or do you usually have people with you?"

"I normally do it alone." Tracey replied. She noticed the look on Marilyn's face, and sighed. "Oh, god. You want to come with me."

"It can't hurt, can it?" She stood there for a moment, lost in thought, before lowering her head.

"No. I guess it really can't."


End file.
